Westford Schools changing the definition of success

Susanna Wood Correspondent

Thursday

Oct 12, 2017 at 6:28 PMNov 1, 2017 at 3:46 PM

The price of success is far too high for many Westford students. According to Westford Academy Principal James Antonelli, recently 42 teens were hospitalized within the first three months of the school year. But what if the problem is not with students’ coping abilities, but with how parents and educators and therefore students - define success? And what if Westford’s schools change not just the goal-posts, but also how the game is played?

Enter “Challenge Success,” Stanford University School of Education’s program formed to “challenge the conventional, high-pressure, and narrow path to success and offer practical alternatives to pursue a broader definition of success.”

At the Oct 10 School Committee meeting, James Antonelli, Westford Academy Principal; Rick McElhinney, Stony Brook School Assistant Principal; and Tim Hislop, Blanchard Middle School Principal, presented an action plan on how to use Challenge Success’s ideas at Westford Academy and the two middle schools. They represented 16 Westford educators, parents and students who traveled to Stanford’s campus on Sept 15-17 to attend the Challenge Success Fall conference.

The group will return to Stanford in the Spring of 2018.

Stanford Conference

“Stanford focuses heavily on supporting districts, particularly high functioning districts … to provide us with support and strategies to alleviate … unnecessary stress for students,” said Dr. Kerry Clery, assistant school superintendent as she introduced the speakers.

“We did a Challenge Success survey last year to understand where the pressure points are,” said Clery. “The major issue was the social-emotional health of students.”

“There are things we can do as schools that can help foster mental health,” she said.

The attendees mission was to determine not just a discrete list of ideas, but how to structure and deliver a solution to the school and home community. The Stanford conference focused on three core areas: school reform, parent education, and youth development.

The attendees went to workshops including “The Well Balanced Student,” “Healthy Grading Practices,” and “Cultivating Social-Emotional Learning.”

Stephen Townsend, a Westford Academy student who attended the conference said, “Our story is less unique than I hoped it would be. I always thought that … we were an outlier because we had such a stressful student body. What I learned is that there are a lot of schools across the country that are feeling the same way...it was good to learn that we’re not alone.”

Healthy steps for WA

“As these students build their resumes, we need to find a balance,” said Antonelli. “It really is a team effort… it’s a marathon, not a race. This is a big ship, but there are little things we can do to make things better.”

Antonelli said that WA is working with an outstanding coach from Dover-Sherborn, the first east coast high school to invite in Challenge Success four years ago.

And Westford Academy has already made concrete changes. This year students have homework-free vacations and more time between classes (an increase from four to five minutes.)

Antonelli’s team is exploring additional ideas including social-media free days, changed expectations for summer work, and assessments leading up to mid-year and final exams.

“Teachers seem to be teaching too far up to the point of mid-year or final [exam] assessments, which creates another whole level of stress,” said Antonelli. “So I challenged teachers today to start that conversation.”

Middle school impact

“We’ll be evaluating the connection between our students’ high achievement and their overall well-being. It is important to keep in mind that this is a multiyear process that will involve continuous feedback from students and families,” Dr. Christopher Chew, Stonybrook principal and Principal Hislop told the Eagle.

“We will be looking at … our students’ use of time, sense of community, opportunities for social-emotional learning, and parent education,” they said.

“At the conference … they used the term ‘low hanging fruit’,” said McElhinney.

The middle school goal is to find areas to “fine tune” where they can “make minor adjustments that will have the greatest impact.”

“We need a broader definition of success,” said Antonelli. “What you want for your child may not be what they want for themselves.”

“What does success mean to you as parents … your son or daughter going to Brown University, or does it mean your son or daughter is just happy?” said Antonelli. “You are only as happy as your least happy child.”

Hislop and McElhinney challenged middle school parents to re-think how they set goals for their children. Parents should help students manage their time and promote balance between academics, activities, and time to “recharge”. Make sleep, playtime, downtime, and family time priorities on a regular basis.

“We want to help enlighten parents … of what society, and what colleges, and what businesses are looking for,” said McElhinney. “…It would lighten the burden… parents will realize this is better for their children as human beings.”

Stonybrook parent attendee R. Gary Cutbill agreed.

“There is a lot of evangelism to do to make this work. We have to be ready with data,” he said. Cutbill is convinced the Challenge Success program will both reduce stress and increase grades.

Not Coddling

“Some people, when we talk about this ask, ‘is it that you are trying to coddle the students?’,” said Clery. “…the answer is no.”

“This is not just about the students who are struggling with mental health. This is about the entire student body who tends to feel bogged down,” added Clery. “We would not be preparing them for life if we were not preparing them for perseverance, for grit, for pushing through some pressures.”

“We want to make sure that the pressures … are developmentally appropriate, and healthy and deliberate on our part,” she said.

“We don’t want to be that ‘helicopter’,” agreed Antonelli. “We are not trying to take away the building of resilience…but I think there is a balance.”

About “Challenge Success”

Challenge Success, a project of the Stanford University School of Education, is a research-based intervention program focused on three core areas: school reform, parent education and youth development. They work with parents, schools and youth to encourage development of the skills for success that are often overlooked in the current system – critical thinking, character, creativity, resilience, self-management, and engagement with learning – while lessening the impact of the high stress, pressure-without-purpose environment in which kids currently struggle.